Why is it Important to Dry Compressed Air?
Drying the output air is very important if you want to avoid problems in the compressed air system. Learn more about why drying is needed and how it is done.
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Drying Compressed Air Using a Membrane Dryer
All atmospheric air contains some amount of water vapor. When air is compressed, the water concentration increases. To avoid future problems in the compressor installation, the compressed air needs to be treated. In this article we talk about drying the air using membrane dryers.
What are membrane dryers?
Membrane dryers use the process of selective permeation of the gas components in the air. The dryer is a cylinder which houses thousands of tiny hollow polymer fibers with an inner coating. These fibers have selective permeation for the removal of water vapor. As filtered, wet compressed air enters the cylinder, the membrane coating allows water vapor to permeate the membrane wall and collect between the fibers, while the dry air continues through the fibers in the cylinder at almost the same pressure as the incoming wet air. The permeated water is vented to the atmosphere outside of the cylinder. The permeation or separation is caused by the difference in the partial pressure of a gas between the inside and the outside of the hollow fiber.
Membrane dryers are simple to operate, silent while operating, have no moving parts, low power consumption and minimal service requirements (mainly filters upstream of the dryer). Besides removing water, gas component separation can also be achieved with a membrane, depending on the characteristics of the fiber material. Separation of different gases is achieved by differences in molecular size and gas solubility in the membrane. Gases of smaller molecular size have larger diffusion and can be suitably separated by differences in mobility. As such, specific membranes can be used to make nitrogen generators, for example.
Membrane dryers are simple to operate, silent while operating, have no moving parts, low power consumption and minimal service requirements (mainly filters upstream of the dryer). Besides removing water, gas component separation can also be achieved with a membrane, depending on the characteristics of the fiber material. Separation of different gases is achieved by differences in molecular size and gas solubility in the membrane. Gases of smaller molecular size have larger diffusion and can be suitably separated by differences in mobility. As such, specific membranes can be used to make nitrogen generators, for example.
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